Sellman -- farming and trains

A historic Black community in Montgomery County, MD

Train tracks and Sellman Rd. sign.

The Sellman family were white landowners who owned a large farm next to the B&O Railroad in Barnesville, MD. The farm still exists, but the Black descendants of Sellman have moved away and the original homes are gone.

In the 1950s, a remarkable Black woman in Sellman named Mozella Coleman Owens tragically lost five of her children in a kitchen fire (fires were a regular occurrence back in the days of woodstoves). She went on to foster 21 children, adopting 10 of them, while also employed as a domestic worker. Her daughter remembers that Ms. Owens' home was the house everyone came to after church and elders can still remember the pies and cakes, vegetables from their garden (they "didn’t have to go to the store much"), and the pork, chicken and eggs from their hogs and chickens. 

(Left) Sellman family farm. (Right) Barnesville train station, across the road from the farm.

Mr. Owens – Dennis, jr., was a trackman for the B&O Railroad (1950 U.S. Census) and used to walk down to the Boyds train station every day to work.

Neighboring families in 1930 included: Florence and John Hallman, jr.; Charles and Bessie Johnson; Elbert M. and Laura Johnson; James H. and Sarah Baley; Richard C. and Julia A. Misner; Dennis and Katie Lee; Nora and Lizzie Lee; and their families. The families of Sellman usually attended Mount Zion United Methodist Church in Big Woods.

-----------------------------

Photos by Neile Whitney

References

U..S Census Bureau. 2000. “Historical Census of Housing Tables: Homeownership Rates 1900-2000.” Census.gov. 2000. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/coh-owner.html

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1950. 1950. “Census Sheet #72, Familysearch Image #35.” Familysearch.org. April 15, 1950. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHJ-5QHW-L9VT?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A6F9X-QC1S&cc=4464515&lang=en&groupId=

Wilson, Everett, Martha Poole, and Alexander Casanges. 1966. “COMMUNITIES along the METROPOLITAN BRANCH of the BALTIMORE and OHIO RAILROAD LOCAL HISTORY COMMUNITIES along the METROPOLITAN BRANCH of the BALTIMORE and OHIO RAILROAD.” Montgomery History. Montgomery County, Maryland. https://montgomeryhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Vol10No1_MCStory.pdf

This article is part of a series on historic Black communities. It is part of an ongoing MoCoLMP project mapping 1) sites of enslavement during the Civil War, 2) historic black communities in Montgomery County, and 3) the three lynching sites in the county.